3Lbs

The failure of Secret Talents of the Stars has had ripple effects on the CBS prime time schedule. With Big Brother coming to an end and Secret Talents unable to make it past one episode, the return of Shark, which was going to come back on Tuesdays at 10 p.m., will now return on Tuesday at 9 p.m. for three broadcasts beginning April 29. Had Secret Talents worked, CBS wouldn't be scrambling on Tuesdays.

The CBS Tuesday lineup for next Tuesday, therefore, will be NCIS, Sharkand a rerun of CSI. Then on May 6, it'll be NCIS, Shark and a CSI: Miami rerun. On May 13, NCIS, Shark and a Criminal Minds rerun.

What'll be interesting for Shark fans -- and TV geeks in general like us -- will be to see exactly how well the James Woods legal drama performs with a strong lead in like NCIS. Even the reruns scheduled to follow the three episodes are all strong support. Will this Tuesday hammock experiment be advantageous to Shark, securing the kind of Nielsen numbers that will be a deciding factor in the show's renewal for next season?

CBS' new medical drama, 3 lbs, is looking for some ratings help from House. How is that possible since they're on different networks and are essentially the same show? It worked for ER. When ABC moved Grey's Anatomy to the 9 pm timeslot on Thursdays this fall, it unwittingly revived ER's ratings. Nielsen statistics show 32% of Grey's Anatomy viewers are switching over to NBC at 10 pm.

CBS is hoping for the same kind of success with 3 lbs, a drama about a rude-but-brilliant brain surgeon that is being called a rip-off of House (something that completely escaped me in my early review because I don't watch House). Even CBS admits 3 lbs is similar to House... but the network uses the word "compatible" to describe the similarities. CBS says it hopes The Unit provides a bunch of viewers, but it doesn't hurt that Fox's programming ends at ten, which is when 3 lbs begins.

With Kidnapped shuffled to a new night to finish out its run, and Smith pulled from the schedule completely, NBC and CBS have a couple slots to fill. The Emmy-winning Medium will return to NBC for its third season sometime in mid November, taking over the Wednesday at 10PM slot. CBS will fill Tuesday at 10PM with 3 Lbs starting on November 14th.

3 Lbs is about the relationship between a brilliant, but arrogant, neurosurgeon, and the rising star that works for him. Originally it was to star Dylan McDermott, but now will feature Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, Murder One) and Mark Feuerstein (West Wing, Good Morning Miami). I'm not sure about Feuerstein in this role, we'll have to wait and see, but I'll give anything with Stanley Tucci in it a look. This character sounds like he could have a little Richard Cross in him, which would be a good thing.

If you're interested in seeing a brain surgeon drama starring Dylan McDermott called 3 Lbs, you should forget about it. At the very least, don't get your hopes up, because despite the talent attached to the drama (it's produced by Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson) CBS chose not to pick the show up. However, the network is considering it for midseason. Clearly, I think the show needs to focus on a surgeon who operates on his own brain while he solves crimes. I'd definitely watch that.